For time purposes, I decided to split up the parade chapter into two. I still am not totally unsure how I am going to wrap it up and decided not to make you wait longer.

And I may have mixed up/combined a couple floats. That is acknowledged. No need to mention that, alrighty?

---

Double D poked and shoved and "excuse me"-d his way through the crowd. He had thought maybe his disguise of a black suit, black tie, black sunglasses, and black fedora might have gained him some respect while still acting as a good disguise, but the crowd paid him no heed (maybe they could still feel the dork waves radiating off him). It took him a few minutes, but he reached the mailbox. He gave an indignant look at the boy with the silly pink hat sitting on it. "Hey! You should not sit on that. It is government property and you are defacing it with your buttocks!"

The kid gave him a look and ignored him.

"LOOK! A large gray child!" The boy whipped around in shock. He didn't get off, though, so Double D gave him a shove and jumped on. He looked over the crowd that had gathered around, expecting another colorful, family-friendly Miyazaki College parade.

They were right about the colorful part, at least.

---

Chihiro member Coop sat in the driver's seat of Tak's remodeled ship. Grinning, he picked up his walkie-talkie. "Zuko, you ready?"

Zuko was brooding so heavily that it took him a full five seconds to respond and his voice was low. "Flamethrowers all set."

"Bender?"

"Legs are ready!"

"Pietro?"

"Heh. Hee hee. Motor. Motor. Motor. Motor. Ready. Ready. Ready. Ready!"

---

Chihiro members Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro were standing on one side of the street. They were busy looking cool with their sunglasses (and other than that, didn't look that cool) and repeating the words "crowd control" over and over in their minds, because when they asked for a job, those were the only two words given to them.

A woman with an impossibly tall blonde wig and a beer in hand tapped Zoro on the shoulder. "Excuse me, my daughter can't see. And she's got a tumor. A head tumor. Can she stand in front of you, please?"

Zoro looked at her emotionlessly. "No."

"Now you're gonna get a tumor. See how you like it." She left.

---

Peter was told to dress in a Marilyn Monroe costume and stand atop the fast food restaurant Mooby's. He was told, "You'll be distracting, and that's your job when we call you on the walkie-talkie." He was told, "When you get your signal, just dance around a lot, so they don't notice us before they're supposed to."

He was told all of that, but he wasn't given anything besides orders.

He looked around the roof. "Maybe… I have to find it."

It didn't help matters that he mixed it up and was in fact dressed as Marilyn Manson, not Marilyn Monroe.

---

The ground around Miyazaki campus shook as the giant robot, about three stories high, stomped down the row of fraternities and sororities, making its way over to the Miyazaki parade.

Coop was not normally a very prevalently involved Chihiro brother, but when it came time for this grand prank finale to formulate, they were all more than happy to accept his help in turning Tak's ship into a giant robot basically overnight. They were also more than happy to accept his cocaine. The cocaine that no one had dared let the already overly speedy Pietro within ten feet of.

Until that morning, when they needed locomotion power.

Coop decided to get a little more glory out of it before they reached the parade. He picked up the walkie-talkie. "Aren't you guys thankful that you have me? I mean, you've never had the chance to utilize me until now. Kind of a plot twist, huh?"

There was a long pause, and then Zuko (manning the flame throwers, don't forget) said, "Speaking of plot twists, have you ever heard of 'friendly fire'?"

Coop was still smiling but didn't respond.

Pietro attempted to work the walkie-talkie, but only a patch of his giggling came through. He came back on briefly, laughing even harder about not being able to work it. This continued for a while.

---

Robin's troupe were right behind the marching band. The mini-Robins swung their guns about and stomped to the beat he barked. He was thinking to himself furious, dark thoughts on how this parade better go. This continued to burrow the nutso little black hole that was his soul even deeper. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow. SLADE! No, that's just the shadow cast by a pigeon. False alarm.

---

The float designed by Totoro House men consisted of a humongous papier-mâché sculpture of two hands shaking - one was a white human hand, the other was covered in fake fur. A large sign in the front read "FURR-E-QUALITY!". The girls from the most prestigious sorority house practically doubled as ornaments, dressed up in Sarah Palin business woman dresses.

Trixie, Jean, and the still less pretty Veronica stood on one side. They were smiling so wide you'd think their teeth were going to pop out and bite you. In fact, the float could have run off of solar panels mounted on their teeth.

Trixie tried again while she continued smiling and waving. "Come on, Jean. I said I was sorry. It wasn't like you were going to do anything with him anytime soon."

Jean was already in a mood because besides the whole Scott debacle, she didn't even want to be up on the men's friggin' float (she'd rather have done her own). "Screw you," Jean replied, her grin not faltering.

There was a slight but steady sudden rumble. Jean thought it was thunder. Then the ground started to move. Maybe I'm going bat shit insane again. Whatever. Knew it was gonna happen. But then the rumble was separated, like the footsteps of a giant monster. Everyone turned to look, except Trixie and Veronica, who would not let their eerie smiles escape if a bomb had dropped.

Enter giant robot.